Your visit, your pilgrimage to the courtyards of the Mother Church, gives us great joy and deeply moves us—on the one hand, because it takes place during the days preceding the great feast of the Nativity of Christ, when we are preparing to receive the incarnate Savior Christ; and on the other hand, because your pilgrimage is taking place in the very year in which God has deemed me worthy to celebrate thirty years of my humble patriarchal ministry.
Indeed, we are preparing to celebrate the descent of God to Earth, which, in truth, is the realization—the fulfillment—of the age-old mystery of God’s divine Economy for the salvation of humankind.
I wish for you to celebrate Christmas—on January 7th, a little later than us—and also the Holy Theophany, and may the entire New Year be spent in spiritual health and well-being, filled with many divine experiences in your monastic dwelling.
As for the one who speaks to you now, these thirty years during which God has deemed me worthy to stand at the helm of the Mother Church, I have tried, in accordance with my conscience, to carry out my duty and nothing more. All that has been accomplished was done through the grace of God and with the help and support of the holy brother hierarchs here and throughout the oikoumene. We have worked together in harmony and cooperation, and what has been achieved over these three decades is the fruit of that synergy.
One of the great blessings that the Holy God has poured out upon us during these years is the possibility of returning from exile the holy relics of my great predecessors and ecumenical teachers: Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, before whom you will pay reverence. They are located in the left nave of the venerable Patriarchal Church. If you have not yet done so, please venerate them before your departure. Their return to the homeland after eight entire centuries was a special blessing from God. They were taken from us by the Crusaders at the beginning of the 13th century, along with many other sacred treasures and holy relics. But fortunately, they have now been returned, and we possess them as a priceless treasure. And with God’s help, they will remain here until the end of time.
We all know that there is a problem with your Local Church—a problem which for several decades has kept you outside communion with the other Local Orthodox Autocephalous Churches.
Fortunately, this problem is not due to doctrinal or theological reasons. We have the same faith, the same dogmas, the same baptism, the same icons, the same saints. The problem is administrative—canonical—therefore we are hopeful that a solution will finally be found.
The Mother Church in Constantinople never ceases, even for a moment, to be concerned about resolving this problem. We believe that the first step will be your reintegration into the canonical order and into canonical communion with the other Orthodox Churches, and that the rest will follow with good will and through dialogue.
One of the responsibilities of the Patriarch of Constantinople, according to the sacred canons of the Ecumenical Councils, is to be the guardian of canonical order throughout the Orthodox Church…
Today or tomorrow you will depart and return to your monasteries. I want you to leave with the firm assurance that the prayer and blessing of the Mother Church in Constantinople accompany you.
And now, while this well-known problem still exists—and even afterward, and forever—you will always remain children of this Church: the martyric and glorious, yet much-suffering Church.
If we set aside the ancient churches of the East, all Orthodox nations—all of you—are children of this Church. We embrace you with love, with warmth, with prayer—always!
Christ is in our midst!
Go in the path of peace!
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen!
